Francine Niyonsaba

South Africa’s Caster Semenya will attempt to reclaim her 800m title on the final day of action of the World Championships in London on Sunday.

The South African, who was awarded gold retrospectively in the event in 2011, already has one medal to her name this week, after winning bronze in the 1500 metres on Monday.

However, it’s the two-lap race that is her strongest, the event in which she won Olympic gold in Rio last year.

Semenya, who won bronze in the 1500m, is the current Olympic Champion and the 2009 World Champion. She has looked comfortable throughout the heats of the 800m, despite her coach saying she is “very tired’ after her 1500m races.

Semenya holds the world leading time for 2017, having clocked 1:55.27 in Monaco in July. Francine Niyonsaba, who will also be racing in the final, is second with 1:55:47. Ajee Wilson, also in the final, has the third best time this year with 1:55:61 with Kenya’s Margaret Nyairera Wambui also battling to dethrone the South African queen.

Sebastian Coe has insisted the IAAF is right to go to the courts to ensure that Caster Semenya and other athletes with hyperandrogenism are not allowed to compete unless they take action to suppress naturally high testosterone levels.

Semenya is a strong favourite to win 800m gold on Sunday night, with her two closest rivals – Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui – also both subject to the kind of innuendo that Semenya herself experienced in 2009.

Lord Coe confirmed on Saturday the IAAF will go back to the court of arbitration for sport in September or October to continue the arguments over the case of the Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, who accused the organisation of discriminating against her by setting an upper limit for the testosterone levels of female competitors. That led to Cas changing the rules – while giving the IAAF two years to prove its case.

The IAAF will argue that athletes with hyperandrogenism, such as Semenya – who was reportedly born with no womb or ovaries but internal testes – have a huge advantage over rivals because of their high testosterone levels. Coe admitted he understood the sensitivities around the case but added he had to do the right thing by his sport.

“This is an incredibly sensitive subject,” he said. “We are all fathers and brothers. I don’t want athletes being demonised but it is the responsibility of the federation to create a level playing field in female sport. We don’t want to turn this into a witch hunt. Nobody is choosing to cheat here. This is not an anti-doping issue – it is a biological one. I have to protect the sport, and of course we have done this carefully. But inevitably there is going to be conjecture and people will feel very strongly about it.

“I don’t want our sport to enter or emerge from this process as being rabid or intolerant of the situation or the condition,” added Coe. “But my ultimate responsibility is to make sure this gets resolved.”

Speaking after winning bronze in the 1500m, Semenya said that she is unconcerned about what the IAAF would do and was concentrating instead on winning 800m gold. “I really don’t have time for nonsense,” she said. “I do not think about something that might happen in eight months. I don’t focus on the IAAF.

It’s not my business. My business is to train hard and see what I come up with in competition.”

Coe also confirmed he would like to see the Russian team return in time for the world championships at Doha in 2019. “I would,” he added, “because it will mean that we are satisfied their athletes have come from a clean environment.”

Only 19 Russians have competed in London as neutral athletes, with Mariya Lasitskene taking gold in the women’s high jump and three winning silver medals, including Sergey Shubenkov in the men’s 110m hurdles, Darya Klishina in the women’s long jump and Valeriy Pronkin in the men’s hammer.

“The guiding principle for me was separating the clean athletes from the tainted system,” said Coe, “Which is why we have had our doping review board go through every application. There are signs of good progress. If we get them back next year, or the year after, it will be because they have met the criteria.”

Coe also said he would like to see the World Athletics Championships come back to London sooner rather than later. “I don’t think anybody in the sport would set its face against thinking ‘We can’t be back here for 30 or 40 years’. There has to be a recognition that this stadium has been full of people morning, noon and night, and that’s a massive advantage to have.”

Olympic 800m bronze medallist Margaret Nyairera of Kenya sailed through to the women’s 800m final at the ongoing World Championships in London.

Wambui was in the same heat with the Rio Olympic silver medalist Francine Niyonsaba both crossing the line in 2:01.19 and 2:01.11 respectively.

National Record holder of United States Anjee Wilson also got an automatic qualification when she led her heat crossing the line in 1:59.21 and was followed by Melissa Bishop of Canada of 1:59.56.

Olympic gold medal Caster Semenya led the heat which was the fastest of all the three when she took 1:58.90 with her closest challenger Angelika Cichocka of Poland pulling in through as Charlene Lipsey of USA and Lynsey Sharp seemed to be tangle with one anothers hand amking her pull a surprise season best of 1:59.32 with the two crossing the line in 1:59.35 and 1:59.47 both qualifying as fastest losers.

Olympics 800m bronze medallist Margaret Nyairera easily took her heat as she cruised into the semi-finals of the women’s 800m at the IAAF World Championships.

Nyairera took 2:00.75 and was followed by Lynsey sharp of Great Britain in 2:01.04 with Uganda’s Halima Nakaayi closing the top three automatic spot with 2:01.80.

Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya cruised into the semi-finals after taking heat three with 2:01.33 with Rose Mary Almanza of Cuba coming second with2:01.43 and a fast finishing Joanna Jozwick of Poland of 2:01.51.

The secnd fastest woman in 800m Burudi’s Francine Niyonsaba took heat six without much preasure as she crossed the line with 1:59.86 and Ethiopia’s Habitam Alemu taking second spot in 2:00.07 with third place going to Selina Buchel of Swiss in a time of 2:00.23

Burudi’s Francine Niyonsaba took the advantage of Caster Semenya’s absence to take honors at the Lausanne Diamond Meeting that was held on Thursday (6) in Swizerland.

The 24 year old who is third placed after semenya and Margaret Nyairera cross the line with1:56.56 with Charlene Lipsey of United States taking second position with 1:57.38 while the former world champion Eunice Sum finishing third in 1:57.78.

Fourth place went to the Dutch Sifan Hassan who got a world lead in Hegelo in 1500m of 3:56.14 and who recently trounced Rio Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon in Paris Meeting. Hassan crossed the line in with 1:58.13 with European 3000m gold medalist Laura Muir of Britain came fifth with a personal best of 1:58.69.

Former world 800m champion Eunice Sum will look for redemption at the Lausanne Diamond League that will be held on Thursday (6) in Switzerland.

The 29 year old who lost her world title in 2015 at Beijing Championships will battle for honors with the Dutch national Sifa Hassan who is in great shape this season with a world lead in Hegelo in 1500m of 3:56.14 and who recently trounced Rio Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon in Paris Meeting.

Sum who this season in her first race in Doha was placed third with 1:58.76 with Caster Semenya winning the race and Margaret Nyairera taking second place in 1:56.61 and 1:57.03 respectively.

With Semenya and Nyairera out of Lausanne another title hopeful is Burudi’s 24 year old Francine Niyonsaba who was placed second at Oslo diamond Meeting with a time of 1:58.18 behind Semenya who won in 1:57.59 with Nyairera pulling third with 1:59.17.

Caster Semenya eased to a maiden Olympic crown over 800 metres after launching a punishing attack on the final bend at Rio 2016.

The South African set a national record of 1:55.28 to finish comfortably clear of Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui, who took silver and bronze respectively.

I dedicate this to my team. They’ve done a fantastic job. It’s a great feeling. Just fantastic. I couldn’t believe it. Just fantastic,” said a stunned Semeya, still comprehending her feat despite being the overwhelming favourite.

Behind her, Niyonsaba, the world Indoor champion, grabbed silver in 1:56.49 to win Burundi’s first ever female Olympic athletics medallist and just the second ever for her country 20 years after Venuste Niyongabo won the men’s 5000m gold in 1996.

Bronze went to the 20-year-old emerging Kenyan talent Margaret Wambui, who out-fought Melissa Bishop of Canada in a tight tussle down the home stretch to stop the clock in a PB of 1:56.89.

There has been a fiercely protective attitude South Africa towards Caster Semenya since her test results in 2009 were leaked to an Australian newspapers despite IAAF promises of confidentiality.

Australia’s Daily Telegraph quoted the test report as saying Semenya has internal testes but no ovaries or womb, and the IAAF secretary general Pierre Weiss added at the time: “She is a woman, but maybe not 100 percent”.

“I fear that when we talk about it in terms of fully expecting no other result than Semenya to win that 800m (at the Olympics), then it’s no longer sport and it’s no longer an open race,” former British world champion Paula Radcliffe said while commentating for the BBC at last month’s London Diamond League meeting.

Another former world champion, Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan, wrote in her newspaper column: “It’s through no fault of their own that these athletes have been born with more male genes and hormones than female; but this doesn’t mean they can simply be classified as women and allowed to take part in women’s events.”

South African sports minister Fikile Mbalula said South Africans would rally around Semenya in the face of probable criticism in Rio.

“Anything that seeks to undermine the standing of Caster I think is anti human rights and not worth promotion,” he said.

“For us it is not an issue,” added Athletics South Africa president Aleck Skhosana on any potential fallout.

Semenya will battle for the 800m Olympic medal against Eunice Sum the former world 800m champion who has also sent warning signs to her by saying, ” i will give Semenya “a run for her money”, despite her impressive return to form in the Diamond League in Doha in April and show-stopping performance in Monaco earlier this month.

“People think nobody can stop her this year, but people are training,” Sum said. “We are training. We will give her a run for her money. Olympics are different from the (Diamond League) circuit.

Another Kenyan who will be making her second appearance on the senior international platform will be Margaret Wambui Nyairera , the world U20 champion from 2014, crossed the line in 1:56.64 but was later disqualified for a lane infringement.

Caster Semenya is an unstoppable force in the women’s 800m, and so she proved again at the Meeting Herculis in Monaco on Friday (15), the ninth stop of this year’s IAAF Diamond League.

Semenya held the world lead coming into the race, and with a field also containing Margaret Wambui and Francine Niyonsaba, the second and third fastest women in the world in 2016, the pace was likely to be fast.

And it was. Katsiaryna Belanovich led them through 400m in 56.04 before wisely stepping aside to allow the race to kick off. Semenya had stuck to the pace from the start, and running at the front ratcheted it up even further to establish a solid lead over world indoor champion Niyonsaba.thw

The powerful South African stepped on the gas through the final straight, accelerating through the line to post a world-leading IAAF Diamond League record of 1:55.33, also breaking her own national record.

“I was expecting to run under 1:56, I am looking forward to gold in Rio,” said a buoyant Semenya. “You have to believe in yourself, and that’s what I did today.”

Niyonsaba ran a national record of her own, the Burundian stopping the clock at 1:56.24 to take second. Nyairera , the world U20 champion from 2014, crossed the line in 1:56.64 but was later disqualified for a lane infringement.